A flip of the saying “he is a product of his environment” meaning that people are influenced heavily by the world they live in

Vast claims that his influence as a rapper is so great that he’s spawned dozens of desperate imitators. They can copy his style, but they’ll never match his talent.

The Cold Vein proved highly influential on underground rap in New York. Artists like Das Racist and Action Bronson aren’t Vast Aire knock-offs, but they do show clear influences. Heems of Das Racist has particularly spoken of the influence of the Def Jux sound on his music.

Possible reference to the 70’s dance, The Bump, which involves you bumping into a dancing partner as if you were pulled in by a gravitational force.
Or, just simply dancing so much you run into people.

Kanye’s at the peak of his career, and there seems to be no way he can get any better. This record stands as a testament to his domination in hip hop. As Kanye would later say:

I showed people that I understand how to make perfect. “Dark Fantasy” could be considered to be perfect. I know how to make perfect.

The diamond represents the Roc. Jay’s use of “mining” is a play on literal diamond mines. The combination of talent and hard work that Jay has put into making his label successful has been as rewarding as a diamond mine.

Father McKenzie is one of the lonely people, forced to write church services that nobody will come to listen to. Either they come, but they don’t pay attention to what he says, or they don’t come at all.

Father McKenzie is darning his socks, something one could reasonably expect a wife to do for him (priests in the Anglican Church can be married, and usually are); question is, no one else can see if his socks are darned or not, so why does he care? That he has to darn his own socks speaks to his isolation and lack of companionship.

Paul McCartney spoke about this section in a November 2020 piece for Rolling Stone:

Father McKenzie is ‘darning his socks in the night.’ You know, he’s a religious man, so I could’ve said, you know, ‘preparing his Bible,’ which would have been more obvious. But ‘darning his socks’ kind of says more about him. So you get into this lovely fantasy.

This character was originally named Father McCartney, but there was a concern people would think it referred to Paul’s dad.

I had Father McCartney as the priest just because I knew that was right for the syllables, but I knew I didn’t want it even though John liked it so we opened the telephone book, went to McCartney and look what followed it, and shortly after, it was McKenzie. I thought, Oh, that’s good.
- Paul McCartney, Many Years From Now, Barry Miles

This line takes more significance in this time of declining church attendance.